Chapter 141: Acquaintance
He didn’t know if it was intuition or what, but Luo Da walked over and pushed open the door, and that smell became stronger, somewhat stinky and nauseating.
He covered his nose and walked in, tentatively calling out to Gao Laotai twice, feeling like something was swaying above his head. When he looked up, he was so scared that he fell flat on his butt on the ground.
Gao Laotai was hanging from the beam, with two mice running down from her body, squeaking as they scurried away quickly.
Luo Da immediately scrambled to find people and also notified Village Chief Lin. By the time the villagers arrived, they then brought Gao Laotai down.
After hearing the account of discovering the corpse and that Gao Qi had mysteriously disappeared, Dan Dajun also felt that Gao Qi was the prime suspect.
After the coroner’s examination, it was confirmed that Gao Laotai had been dead for more than three days, and at that time Gao Qi had not yet left the village.
Since Gao Qi was home at the time, if Gao Laotai had been strangled to death, she would have struggled and made some movement. With only a wall between them, how could Gao Qi not have known?
Therefore, the murderer who killed Gao Laotai was very likely Gao Qi.
Hearing Village Chief Lin say that this time it was again someone from Lu Xiucai Scholar’s family who discovered that Gao Laotai had not committed suicide, Dan Dajun was not in a hurry to go back and report, but instead took people to find Lu Chengjing and Lady Shang.
Unfortunately, Lady Shang had gone into the mountains, and only Lu Chengjing was there.
Lu Chengjing didn’t let them into the wooden shed, but had Xiao Huan pour water, and they talked at the long table outside.
Dan Dajun glanced at the new house in the distance that was mostly covered, and smiled, “I see this new house is almost finished. Congratulations in advance on the housewarming celebration.”
“It will take some more days to complete,” Lu Chengjing said. “If Officer has time then, feel free to come for a cup of simple wine.”
This was originally just a polite remark, like telling a friend to come eat sometime. As long as no specific time was set, it was just polite talk between adults, not to be taken seriously.
Besides, from the city to Elm Tree Village, it would take at least an hour either way. They had no close personal relationship with Dan Dajun, so it wasn’t worth running that far for a meal.
Lu Chengjing was waiting for Dan Dajun to politely decline, but he unexpectedly agreed readily, which really caught Lu Chengjing off guard.
From their previous few conversations, he had noticed that Dan Dajun seemed intentionally friendly toward their family.
A little thought made it clear that Dan Dajun’s attitude was probably related to Lord An.
The two exchanged a few more polite words, but Lu Chengjing, who had never liked such talk, steered the conversation back to the main topic.
Dan Dajun also didn’t like beating around the bush, and asked, “I wonder how Lady Shang could tell that Gao Laotai did not commit suicide but was killed by someone else?”
Lu Chengjing had already prepared his explanation, and said slowly, “I like reading miscellaneous books in my spare time, and I once saw in a book the difference between being strangled and hanging oneself. After hearing Niangzi’s description, I felt something was off, so I specially went to ask the doctor in the village. Only after confirmation did I dare to be sure that Gao Laotai was indeed killed by someone else, and then I informed the village chief.”
Dan Dajun wasn’t one for reading books, nor did he have the spare money for it. But he knew that some books did describe details related to autopsy.
Coroner Xu had several such books, complete with illustrations that even laymen could understand.
He easily believed Lu Chengjing’s explanation, asked a few more questions, and then took his leave with his men.
Because the cause of death was clear, and Gao Laotai’s corpse had already started to stink, Dan Dajun didn’t take the corpse back to the county yamen, but instead had the villagers bury it quickly.
The money for the coffin was found in the Gao Family’s things, and the villagers pooled together a bit more, so a simple funeral was arranged.
Gao Qi never appeared in the village again.
The county yamen had already determined that Gao Qi had fled out of guilt, and since they couldn’t catch him for a long time, they posted wanted notices all over the city.
When Lady Shang entered the city to sell medicinal herbs, she ran into A Le, the servant boy of Qiao Yu’an, at the city gate.
As soon as A Le saw Lady Shang, he praised the ointment she gave him for being effective. He happened to be going to Elm Tree Village to deliver a letter to Lu Chengjing, so running into Lady Shang saved him the trouble.
Lady Shang tucked the letter away securely, drove the ox cart to the familiar apothecary, and as soon as she stopped the ox cart, she saw a noblewoman with a familiar face coming out of the apothecary.
It was precisely the mother-in-law who had made the original host’s head ache and heart tremble just by seeing her—Madam Lu.
Standing beside Madam Lu was a young woman, dressed in a begonia-colored spring shirt, with a melon seed face, a pair of curved eyebrows as fine as hooks, and very exquisite makeup, with a hint of arrogance in her brows and eyes.
Her hair was pinned with two ruby hairpins that swayed, echoing the ruby earrings on her earlobes, which made her complexion rosy and her face like a lotus.
This woman was also an acquaintance, precisely Lu Chengyuan’s wife, Li Shi.
The two main forces who bullied the original host in the Lu residence were Madam Lu and her.
The two were also followed by a group of servant women, some with familiar faces.
The apothecary’s storefront wasn’t large, and while Lady Shang was sizing them up, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair also saw her.
Madam Lu’s brow immediately furrowed in displeasure, her lips turning down, clearly extremely displeased with the original host.
Li Shi’s expression showed no change, and her smile even increased a bit, as if she had a very good relationship with her sister-in-law, the original host.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair stopped, and the group of servant women naturally stopped as well. Everyone’s gazes fell on Lady Shang, clearly waiting for her to come forward and greet them first.
Lady Shang jumped down from the ox cart, with no intention of speaking to the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair, and directly called the shop assistant from the apothecary to unload the medicinal herbs from the cart.
She was also a regular customer at the apothecary, and the shop assistants all recognized her face. They didn’t even need Lady Shang to call; someone had already come over to help proactively.
The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law pair were just left hanging to the side, watching as Lady Shang treated them like air.
Madam Lu’s originally decent-looking face instantly turned ashen, her eyes glaring darkly at Lady Shang, with displeasure nearly spilling out.
Li Shi was good at reading the room. Even if she had many grievances against Madam Lu in her heart, she never showed it on her face, playing the role of the good daughter-in-law to the hilt.
She pondered for a moment, then called out to Lady Shang proactively: “Younger Brother’s Wife, how can you see Mother and not come forward to pay respects?”
Lady Shang turned a deaf ear, not even giving her a glance, and stepped over the threshold of the apothecary.
“Stop!” Madam Lu could no longer tolerate Lady Shang ignoring her, and scolded with a dark face, “Is this how you treat your elders?”
Lady Shang rolled her eyes inwardly. She had already been expelled from the family, yet she was still putting on airs as the mother-in-law.
She turned her head, her gaze falling on Madam Lu, giving her a light once-over from top to bottom, and with red lips parting lightly, she spat out two words: “Who are you?”
Hearing these two words, Madam Lu’s face immediately darkened, and she pointed at Lady Shang, her chest heaving with anger.
Li Shi quickly supported her, soothing her while staring disapprovingly at Lady Shang, “Younger Brother’s Wife, how can you speak to Mother like that?”
Lady Shang chuckled, “Mother? What kind of mother is she? We’re not even on the same family tree. I don’t have the habit of randomly recognizing a mother.”
Li Shi swallowed, looking in surprise at Lady Shang’s exquisite face. Was this still the woman she used to bully at will?
